Production quality is no longer an afterthought. Today's television viewers have sophisticated expectations and plenty of other choices when they are not being satisfied. Production quality is a whole lot more than video quality, despite the best attempts of camera and lens manufacturers to convince broadcasters otherwise. Over 80 percent of polled viewers rate narrative content and delivery as the foremost factor in perceived production quality. It is the performance of the on-screen presenter that counts the most.

Savvy producers look at production from the talent's perspective rather than the control room's. It is a daunting task, and the talent needs all of the help that the staff can provide. The irony of most broadcast facilities is that sophisticated automation and hyper-connectivity end at the cameras - a communications moat isolating the talent from the rest of the crew.

Back in the day, production crews agreed that an on-camera prompter was needed, but the only pieces of equipment available were massive studio set-ups, with six-foot long conveyers of paper script being shepherded by dedicated operators. Several department members became intrigued with the market gap of corporate video production. A fast survey confirmed a strong demand for a quality EFP style prompter, thus a teleprompter came to life.

A teleprompter is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. Using a teleprompter is similar to the practice of using cue cards. The screen is in front of and usually below the lens of the camera, and the words on the screen are reflected to the eyes of the performer using a sheet of clear glass or a specially prepared beam splitter. The light from the performer passes through the front side of the glass into the lens. A shroud surrounding the lens and the back side of the glass prevents unwanted light from reflecting into the lens.

Teleprompter accessories include tripods, scroll controllers, and carrying cases. Scroll controllers can be remote controlled, solid aluminum wired controllers, and heavy duty foot pedal controller beam splitters.

In a market like India, with varied languages, multilingual prompters are finding a lot of demand, assisting anchors in delivering smooth speeches. Voice activated teleprompters, which automatically scroll, are in good demand.

Among the technological innovations showcased at the NAB 2010 was a professional teleprompter for the Apple iPad. This is the first professional teleprompter to take advantage of the new iPad platform. The new ProPrompter HDi is based on the customer's iPad, which features a 10-hour battery and large, bright nine-inch diagonal screen. The ProPrompter consists of a light yet durable design that holds the iPad safe and secure, with studio-quality beam splitter glass, an anti-reflection mask, and a custom waterproof military grade case.

Teleprompters have also found popularity with public figures for assistance in delivering public addresses and presentations. The speech prompter consists of a piece of glass with a special, partially reflective coating. It is mounted on an unobtrusive stand so as not to block the speaker from the audience or the cameras. Also, it allows the speaker to maintain eye contact with his or her audience. Usually, two of such glass stands are set up, on two sides in front of the podium. This is to ensure that the speaker does not look static. He or she can now read from one glass stand and then turn to address the other side of the audience and read from the other glass stand projecting exactly the same speech.

Larger amounts of acceptance are driving the market and are also flooding the market with more innovative systems integrated into traditional teleprompters and HD cameras to nullify the whole manual process.